NTPC to power capacity by 24 gw ... through Rs 1.6 trillion investment

Amid global economic uncertainty, state-owned NTPC remains sanguine about domestic electricity demand and has planned a total capacity addition of 24 GW entailing an investment of Rs 1.6 lakh crore. "Various projects of the company having an aggregate capacity of around 24 gw are under implementation at 23 locations across the country," NTPC CMD Gurdeep Singh said while addressing the company AGM on Tuesday.

Singh said, "This (24 gw) includes 4,050 mw being undertaken by joint venture and subsidiary companies. This translates into a capex of about Rs 1,60,000 crore."

The installed capacity of the NTPC group today stands at 47,228 mw, which includes 800 mw of hydro and 360 mw of solar generation capacity. The company has planned an all-time high stand-alone capex of Rs 25,960 crore exceeding the MoU target of 23,000 crore (with the power ministry) and the NTPC group capex stood at Rs 32,091 crore last fiscal.

Singh is of the view that the national trends suggest a promising future for NTPC despite the overall atmosphere of uncertainty in the global business scenario. "India is the fastest growing major economy in the world with a huge potential appetite for power consumption... on September 9, 2016, actual energy demand met in India was all-time highest at 3,539 mu and NTPC (with group entities) contributed 866 mu (million units)," he said. "Thus, green shoots are visible as far as upswing in power demand goes and this is in line with our long held expectations of growth."

NTPC has commissioned 10,125 mw in the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17) so far and aims to commission around 4,500 mw more during 2016-17. He also said that under UDAY scheme for revival of debt-laden discoms, bonds worth about Rs 1.66 lakh crore have been issued, relieving the balancesheets of state utilities and thereby enabling higher capacity utilisation by generators. He further informed shareholders that with about 7 billion metric tonnes of geological reserves estimated at its 10 coal blocks, NTPC expects to produce about 107 million tonnes of coal per annum.

He also told that the mining operations have commenced in Pakri Barwadih and the company has progressed well in other coal blocks too. The company has moved forward on coal freight rationalisation, thereby reducing coal transportation cost.

With improved domestic coal supplies, NTPC has been able to minimise import of coal. With these steps, it has been able to reduce the tariff by 14 paise (4.3%) in the first quarter of 2016-17 from a year ago.